The present disclosure pertains generally to tactile and braille displays. Several variations of these displays have been developed, but all have significant shortcomings. The most prevalent of these devices use piezo electric actuators to move the tactile elements. These piezo actuators are relatively expensive, fragile, slow to change states, require unsafe voltages to actuate, and are relatively large. These shortcoming severely limit the number of moveable tactile elements that can be displayed on a device using the piezo technology. Additionally, current displays require maintenance in the form of annual cleaning of the display elements to maintain the functionality of the units. This cleaning is performed by technicians and is therefore time consuming and expensive. Thus, there is a need for improvement in this field.